It's been a while since I last posted here, but I'm very excited to have been asked to be part of the blog tour for The Green Indian Problem by Jade Leaf Willetts, the latest release from Renard press. Before I start, a content warning for physical abuse, sexual abuse and child abuse as there are some mentions in this book, although not the main focus.
This is, once again, such an interesting voice from Renard Press. The Green Indian Problem is Jade Leaf Willetts' debut and it's going to stay with me for a long time. The central premise of the story is that our narrator, Green, is an ordinary boy in Wales during the late 80s, but unfortunately everyone thinks he's a girl.
At the start of the story, Green is using his 'working out book' from school to try to work out the issue of why everyone thinks he is a girl called Jade. He writes in short diary-esque segments about all sorts of things, like his mum and dad's relationship, his mum's horrible boyfriend, his best friend Michael and all sorts of aspects of life which are important when you're seven and a half. Fairly mundane things like school, playing out with friends, going to visit nan and grandad are contrasted with unexpectedly serious issues which occur during the course of the story, and as a reader I particularly engaged with this. Although there are some sad and some shocking things which happen over the course of the book, I didn't feel, having finished the book, that I'd just read a sad story, and I think that's a really impressive skill in Willetts' writing.
Green has one of the most authentic voices I've read in a long while, and throughout the book I really felt what he was feeling and became immersed in the world he was living in. His voice is very earnest and literal and confused, and just so relatable. I really loved reading his story! I also think The Green Indian Problem is the first time I've read a book which deals with gender identity in a child of this age, and this is part of what made Green's authentic voice so powerful for me. Throughout the story there are things which happen only because people listen to him and believe him, and I thought that his awareness of how his parents, especially his mum, were aware of and trying to process his 'problem' was such a beautiful, and often sad, part of the story. This is a book that I won't forget and I'd really recommend it - you can pre-order from Renard Press here.
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